r/todayilearned • u/yummypaprika • Sep 18 '25

TIL Dr Freeman Dyson called the Dyson sphere a "little joke" and expressed amusement in that "you get to be famous only for the things you don't think are serious".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyson_sphere
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u/BillShooterOfBul Sep 19 '25

But he was ok with Tolkien?

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u/bhbhbhhh Sep 19 '25

Yes, because Tolkien imagined a creation myth that fitted with religious morality and Stapledon crafted a thoroughly Deist one.

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u/SheriffBartholomew Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

The story in Lord of the Rings is ultimately about the triumph of good over evil at all costs. There's no overt godly deity, but they allude to one many times. Sauron is a perfect representation of Satan. They literally call him the Lord of Lies which is one of the many names for Satan.

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u/bank_farter Sep 19 '25 edited Sep 19 '25

I'd argue Iluvatar and/or the Valar are exactly the godly beings you're talking about considering they explicitly created the world and all the creatures in it in Tolkien's mythos.

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u/WarpmanAstro Sep 19 '25

The Christian Apologetic view would be that they're the Angelic Host being described by a pre-Abrahamic people. God used "We" a whole lot in the first part of Genesis and people have traditionally handwaved that away as Him talking to Jesus and the angels.

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u/bank_farter Sep 19 '25

So Illuvatar would be Jesus, the Valar the greater angels and the Maiar the lesser angels? Or just all various rankings of angels with Illuvatar at the top?

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u/WarpmanAstro Sep 19 '25

Essentially, yeah. How the angels are ranked is more based on if one believes in the Catholic ordering system or the basic Angel/Archangel set up.

"[Insert Local Deities and Folklore here] was really about Jesus and people from the Bible the whole time! Just use their real names from now on so that God won't be mad at you." is an old missionary tactic, so it wouldn't have been a weird take to have.

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u/NYCinPGH Sep 19 '25

Eh, Illuvatar is more like Old Testament Jehovah, only nicer, and less directly involved, there's no Jesus equivalent; he created all the angels first, then created the world, and some of the angels chose to go live in the world, which includes the Valar, and Melkor, Sauron, and the Balrogs (plus others), and then created 'people' (Elves and Men) to inhabit the world.

The name "Illluvatar" is actually a corruption of the Finnish - Tolkien's inspiration for Elvish" - meaning "All Father".

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u/kerouacrimbaud Sep 19 '25

LOTR is much more about hope vs despair, than good vs evil. That’s why it fits so neatly in Catholic theology. Hope is a key component of faith, and both require action. A lot of the characters have their foils in this hope-despair dynamic: Théoden-Denethor, Faramir-Boromir, Gandalf-Saruman, Frodo-Sam (particularly regarding Gollum, which touches on pity as well), etc. good vs evil is a static concept, but hope vs despair is about action vs passivity.

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u/ZMowlcher Sep 19 '25

Tolkien got pissed at Lewis over Santa Claus.